Corsair Vengeance Gaming Mice, Keyboards, & Headsets Preview

Corsair may have had a humble beginning as a memory-based manufacturer when they opened shop in 1994, but since that time, they have grown to be one of the largest suppliers of virtually all PC components. Focused mainly on enthusiast-grade DDR memory in their early years, Corsair has recently started to expand into other segments of the market, including cases, solid state drives, and self-contained water-cooling systems. Now, they are going further by heading into the gaming mice and keyboard markets with the debut of four new products. While these peripherals are a first for Corsair, they are designed to not only be functional and stylish, but also have a feature-set designed by and for gamers, like the rest of their product line.

The gaming mice in the series are named the Vengeance M60 and M90 – both are wired mice that employ an impressive array of features. Each mouse utilizes their own unique functions that allow them to have an emphasis on different styles of gaming – the M90 is designed to work flawlessly in MMO/RTS style games, while the M60 is optimized to work for first-person shooters.

The new keyboards in the series also have the same emphasis on improving various gaming types – the K90 is designed for MMO/RTS games and the K60 is designed for first-person shooters. Like the mice, each keyboard utilizes their own unique feature-set that looks to improve player performance for their corresponding game types.

Along with the Vengeance keyboards and mice, Corsair is also expanding their gaming headset line-up with the Vengeance 1500, 1300 and 1100. Each headset is meant to fit a certain price segment. However, even the basic 1100 model utilizes large drivers, a comfortable design, and a noise-cancelling microphone to improve the audio, feel, and use of the headset, respectively.

Before diving into the aesthetics and featurs of their new products, Corsair showed off a timeline of their current line-up, which includes products that we all know and love.

The Vengeance K90 is a sleek keyboard that uses an aluminum chassis and has been optimized for MMO and RTS gaming by including features such as Cherry MX red mechanical key switches for anti-ghosting and low noise, 20-key rollover, one millisecond reporting rate, and a back-lit variable blue LED for each key. Additionally, the K90 features 18 dedicated macro keys that can either be programmed through the software on-the-fly or with 3 selectable macro banks that can store up to 54 commands.

On the other hand, the K60 takes a different approach by using a linear response, an advanced key matrix design, and light-touch Cherry MX red mechanical key switches that provide more agile movement and faster multi-taps. The keyboard also includes a removable contoured wrist rest that is meant to increase user comfort and double as a storage area for housing additional keys. These extra keys use a standard design, but act as optional replacements for WASD and numbers 1 to 6 keys, which utilizes a textured top design. Overall the textured keys add to the visuals of the board, but they also increase the comfort, especially during long gaming sessions.

Moving onto the mice, we have the M90 and M60. Like the keyboards, they are designed for certain types of gamers. The Vengeance M90 is customized for use in massively-multiplayer online and real-time strategy games. It features 15 fully-programmable buttons that are optimally arranged and tuned for easy access. Additionally, the M90 includes an on-board flash chip that allows the user to store macro settings within the mouse’s internal memory bank, which can be accessed on-the-fly.

The M90 features an Avago 5670 DPI sensor that can be adjusted in real-time. The laser also includes a lift-detection feature that automatically adjusts the mouse after being lifted off the desk. A software utility is included with the M90 – it can be used to manage macro keys, on-board profiles, and change sensor settings from within Windows.

The M60 is Corsair's new enthusiast grade-gaming mouse that looks to improve user experience in first-person shooters. Like the M90, the M60 utilizes an Avago 5670 DPI sensor with lift-detection for real-time adjustments. However, the M60 utilizes an aluminum unibody design with an adjustable center of gravity and PTFE glide pads.

Making the Vengeance M60 potentially even more powerful as a FPS tool, there is also a red "sniper" button that lowers the DPI on-the-fly. When activated, the mouse toggles between a high-speed DPI mode and a precision mode. This serves to improve accuracy when using in-game sniper rifles, and could come in handy whenever a lower DPI is required for kills.

Lastly, Corsair showed us their latest USB gaming headsets, the Vengeance 1500, 1300, and 1100. The Vengeance 1500 and 1300 utilize a circumaural, closed-back ear-pad design optimized for immersion and comfort. Both headsets feature custom 50mm drivers that improve the sound quality over traditional headsets and accurately position 3D audio. Additionally, they each contain a high-sensitivity noise-cancelling cardioid microphone to help minimize background noise and ensure that your voice is the only thing heard. The Vengeance 1500 uses a simple USB connection, while the 1300 utilizes a 3.5mm analog connector for use with an add-on sound card or on-board audio jack.

The remaining headset is the Vengeance 1100. Featuring a behind-the-ear design, it looks to be extremely light-weight and comfortable. However, it still contains large 40mm drivers, which packs quite the punch for a compact headset. Like the other two in the series, the 1100 includes a noise-cancelling microphone. Surprisingly, the Vengeance features both a USB and 3.5mm analog connector.

Summary:

Overall, we feel that the new Corsair Vengeance products should make quite an impact on the market and will be able to go head-to-head with some of the best peripherals currently available. As we see, the designs are meticulously thought out – it includes every expected detail on top of unique features such as an aluminum chassis design that exudes high quality.

In addition to seeing the new gear and watching the presentation, Corsair allowed us to demo the products. From our experiences, we can honestly say that they all feature excellent build quality and work exceptionally well for what they do. The only question is how the market will react to optimized keyboards and mice for certain game types. Corsair could have easily gone with all-in-one designs that appealed to gamers across the board, so we are intrigued to see how consumers will take to the fact that the M/K60 and M/K90 are optimized for specific segments of the market.

All the products listed above are expected to hit retail shelves this October and be priced aggressively to the competition. All the prices for the new Vengeance gaming peripherals are listed below: